“Bloggerships” Available for Needy Winos!

Last year we attended the first annual North American Wine Blogger Conference at The Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, California. It was an incredible deal! For just $95 each (as citizen bloggers), we enjoyed a fabulous vineyard tour, live blogging, seminars, dinner with the enigmatic Gary Vaynerchuk and a tasting at Kick Ranch where we sampled what would become Bedrock Wine Co.’s inaugural releases.

We also were treated to dinner at Sebastiani with guest speaker Alice Feiring, New York Times columnist and author of The Battle for Wine and Love: or How I Saved the World from Parkerization. There we noticed a group of rather rowdy winos sitting at a table across the room. Since that time, these have become some of our favorite winos! And it turns out they have pretty big hearts and generous spirits!

Lucky for us we were both gainfully employed, had a decent tax refund, and we found some great airfares that allowed us both to go. But not everyone is so fortunate. That’s why we’re so excited to learn that this year those folks from the rowdy table have gotten together to create a scholarship fund so even more bloggers will be able to attend.

Winos and twitterati Winebratsf, Sonadora, Catie, Brixchick_liza, drXeNo and WBC King Pin Joel Vincent have set up a WBC Scholarship website and have encouraged anyone who needs a little extra help getting to the WBC09 this July 24-26 to apply. Here are the specs to be considered:

In order to submit your application for consideration, please send the following information via to wbcscholarship@gmail.com for committee review:

1. Full Name
2. Contact information including email and phone number
3. Blog address and what you’re all about
4. Requested funds – please be specific, and indicate if you need the registration fee, full or partial hotel, full or partial airfare.  Remember, that times are tough and a lot of people need assistance, so please be honest and realistic about your requirements.
5. In 250 words or less, please tell us why you would like to attend the WBC and why we should consider your application.

In order to help as many bloggers as possible, the committee is also accepting donations from individuals as well as corporations! If you’d like to send a check you can send it as follows:

Checks can be made out to:

Liza D. Swift, with the memo line  as “For the WIne Blogger Conference Scholarship Fund”

You can submit these to :

Liza Swift/WBC Scholarship Fund

2340 Powell Street, #191

Emeryville, CA 94608

You can also donate directly via PayPal. Just go to the WBC Scholarship donation page and follow the link.

Tuscan Lunch at Michel-Schlumberger winery

We’re already signed up for this year’s conference which will include both Napa and Sonoma county events! We hope if you’re able you’ll consider donating. And if you’re interested in attending but don’t have the cash, we encourage you to apply.

Cheers and we hope to see you in July!

View Comments to ““Bloggerships” Available for Needy Winos!”

1. Shana Ray Says:
   May 14th, 2009 at 8:14 pm

   I resemble your rowdy wine blogger remark!

2. Sonadora Says:
   May 15th, 2009 at 6:13 am

   Who you calling rowdy?

3. 1winedude Says:
   May 15th, 2009 at 6:51 am

   I think this is a great idea but I really want to address the 800 Lb. gorilla in the room on this…

   How will the final recipient be chosen?

   I can potentially see some friction if people don't have transparency into exactly how the recipient will be picked and how the funds will be dolled out, etc.

4. WBC Scholarship Committee Says:
   May 15th, 2009 at 10:56 am

   So there is no “recipient”. It is recipientS, plural. The goal of the scholarship was to assist up and coming bloggers and members of the blogging community who might need assistance, so we could encourage them to become a part of the larger whole.

   There is a 6 person panel who is responsible for choosing the wniners, including bloggers, professionals and retailers. We wanted to ensure that we had a good cross section of panelists. Furthermore, no one person makes the final decision. This is a vote by committee. If there is a conflict, everyone puts in their votes, and the recipients are selected by committee, weighed by need and funds available.

   I thought we were pretty clear on our blog about how this was working, but clearly we should clarify a few things – unless you haven’t been to the official site Joe! In which case, a big fat sloppy kiss to you.

   http://wbcscholarship.wordpress.com

5. WBC Scholarship Committee Says:
   May 15th, 2009 at 1:56 pm

   So there is no “recipient”. It is recipientS, plural. The goal of the scholarship was to assist up and coming bloggers and members of the blogging community who might need assistance, so we could encourage them to become a part of the larger whole.

   There is a 6 person panel who is responsible for choosing the wniners, including bloggers, professionals and retailers. We wanted to ensure that we had a good cross section of panelists. Furthermore, no one person makes the final decision. This is a vote by committee. If there is a conflict, everyone puts in their votes, and the recipients are selected by committee, weighed by need and funds available.

   I thought we were pretty clear on our blog about how this was working, but clearly we should clarify a few things – unless you haven't been to the official site Joe! In which case, a big fat sloppy kiss to you.

   http://wbcscholarship.wordpress.com

6. WBC Scholarship Committee Says:
   May 15th, 2009 at 5:56 pm

   So there is no “recipient”. It is recipientS, plural. The goal of the scholarship was to assist up and coming bloggers and members of the blogging community who might need assistance, so we could encourage them to become a part of the larger whole.

   There is a 6 person panel who is responsible for choosing the wniners, including bloggers, professionals and retailers. We wanted to ensure that we had a good cross section of panelists. Furthermore, no one person makes the final decision. This is a vote by committee. If there is a conflict, everyone puts in their votes, and the recipients are selected by committee, weighed by need and funds available.

   I thought we were pretty clear on our blog about how this was working, but clearly we should clarify a few things – unless you haven't been to the official site Joe! In which case, a big fat sloppy kiss to you.

   http://wbcscholarship.wordpress.com

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